Ellie had a ballroom competition in Provo today and I thought since we had so much fun on our BYU weekend trip last year that I would book a hotel and we would do somethings on campus while we were there. We arrived at the hotel a little after 3pm (check-in time) Friday and got in our swim clothes so we could hit the pool. Andrew saw the swim stuff out ready to take and kept asking if he could go swimming so he was super excited which is a huge improvement from 6 months ago when he did not like the idea of floating. We spent about an hour in the pool then they warmed up in the hot tub for a bit. After which two other little girls showed up and the girls played another 30 minutes in the pool with them. Lila was having fun diving for toys which is a huge break through with putting her face in the water and holding her breath--I remember that was the turning point for Ellie's swimming so hopefully Lila will make huge progress in swimming this year too. Andrew swam around with a tube all by himself then at the very end he took off his tube and Steve took him out and then he looked at Steve and said, "Let go Daddy. Let go. I do it." Steve didn't let go--not quite ready for that. :)
Then we showered everyone and went to a BYU tennis match--it offered free admission and free pizza. As we were walking to the game Andrew saw a big Y and said, "Football." I don't know how he has made that association, but it's pretty cute. We watched the end of a doubles game while the kids snacked on pizza and then the singles match started and another round of pizza. It was fun and free. We hit J-Dawgs to top of our college dining experience. There was also a gymnastic meet going on next door in the Smith Fieldhouse we debated going to, but decided with the tennis and ballroom competition tomorrow we had done enough sitting and watching. We went back to the hotel and found the gymnastic meet on TV and watched that while we got ready for bed. Andrew got to sleep in the pull-out bed which he thought was pretty cool, but he was so wound up he kept jumping up to see where everybody was sleeping and I was trying to lay with him and not comfortable at all--I was probably lucky if I got 20-30 minutes of sleeping every hour (I woke-up and walked around every hour to try and stretch my sore back). I finally crawled into bed with Steve around 2am only to have Lila start fussing a bit and so Steve took care of her and then noticed Andrew making a break for the bathroom because that was the only light we had on. So I went back to the pull-out with Andrew. I eventually reclined in the chair next to the bed with my feet up on the bed to get some rest. This is the part where I say, "WHY?" Sleeping in hotels with kids is not sleeping . . . why do I ever think otherwise.
We had a 7:30am reservation for the Provo City Center Temple Open House. I woke-up a little after 7 and everyone was still sleeping so I let them sleep a bit more. Our hotel was right across the street so I knew we could quickly get ready and walk over. Steve and the girls awoke so I had them use the restroom and get their dress clothes on. Then I gave them some bananas and a couple of pastries I had brought to hold everyone over until after the open house. Andrew awoke and ate a pastry then we walked over and arrived around 7:50 there was no line and they still accepted our reservation. We had a great experience with the tour and explaining things to our children. We told Ellie that the next time she will make covenants with Heavenly Father is when she goes to the temple and she should be living worthy of that goal. Andrew saw the baptismal font and said, "water. I go in water." Steve said that is where we can do baptisms. Andrew then said, "Yeah, I get baptized." It is a really beautiful and unique temple. It used to be a tabernacle and Steve and I both attended a few Church meetings in that building as college students. For a couple of years I had Truman G Madsen as a Stake President and he would always have the whole stake meet on Easter Sunday there and have a special meeting--we would even have the sacrament that day which usually doesn't happen at a Stake meeting. In 2010 a fire destroyed the inside of the building and then in 2011 President Monson announced that it would become a temple. The exterior walls were saved and construction began. The temple is a place of learning and worship and where family bonds can be made eternal so it was really a neat experience to have as a family.
Then we went out to breakfast which is always fun for the kids. We went back to the hotel to get ready for the competition and pack-up our stuff. At that point Ellie realized she forgot her ballroom shoes. Fortunately we have lots of great neighbors and friends who were coming down and one of them stopped and got her shoes for us. We had a little extra time before the competition so we went the Bean Museum on campus. So much has changed since I was a student there. One semester I had a class in the Bean museum auditorium and I remember hiking up there after work at Campus Craft and Floral and studying next to the animals before class. Now it has been remodeled and is still under construction a bit, but the kids had fun looking at all of the animals and buying a souvenir.
We got Ellie checked in for the competition and began the long wait for her dance. She had to check in at 12:15, the competition didn't begin until 1pm and she danced the second to last dance at almost 3pm. Steve chased Andrew around up on the track above the gym for almost 30 minutes before the competition began. Then he managed to fall asleep for almost an hour during the competition--it was so loud with music and cheering I have no idea how he slept. Then he woke-up a little before Ellie's dance and was ready to, "Go home." We managed to hold him over with fruit snacks and a lollipop until Ellie danced and then Steve took him out to the car. Lila and I enjoyed watching the professional dances and then as soon as they announced Ellie's group received a silver ribbon I gathered up our stuff and walked over and pulled her so we could go home. It was only a few minutes before the event really ended, but it had been a long weekend and I was starting to get a migraine and having contractions so we said our goodbyes to Provo.
I thought I took pictures while videoing her dance, but I guess my updated camera app doesn't do that--ugh. So here she is with her group after getting checked in.
We also played a little game of who could spot the white Y on the mountain cover in snow. Steve could never find it--granted he was our driver so he never got a chance to really look for it, but we teased him that it was like a Where's Waldo and he couldn't do it.
As mentioned before, the girls received 4 night lessons and skiing with Daddy. Lila was so excited last Thursday on into Friday before their first lesson she could barely contain herself. They had a lot of fun and look forward to going again this week. Lila said her favorite part was riding up the big lift with Daddy and Ellie said she liked it all. We decided to take Andrew today and let him try it out. Here he is in all his gear--we were afraid that would be the most difficult part because even getting on his snow gear to sled is quite the task, but he was ok getting it on today.
After getting him in his gear we realized that he probably wasn't ready for the backpack we bought to use with him because he kept leaning backwards so Steve decided to just put him in front of him and ride the magic carpet a couple of times. Ellie ended up right in front of him and Lila is a couple of kids back.
He made three runs and was even doing a pretty good pizza wedge at the end. Then he and I left the other 3 to enjoy the evening. Look at the grin on Andrew's face.
Do you remember that show 24? Each episode was supposed to represent an hour in a day and the whole season was supposed to be one day-24 hours. I never really got into, but I do remember watching a couple of episodes with college roommates. I could never really believe that everything happened in an hour and thus the show never really appealed to me. Well, I'm having one of those weeks with a 24 hour period that included 3 trips to the pediatrician, 3 different antibiotics, and about a dozen loads of laundry thanks to pink eye and throw-up.
It all started last weekend. . . well really it started just after Christmas when Andrew began coughing. I was afraid the air quality may have ignited some of his asthmatic tendencies, but he was sleeping fine and there were no other symptoms so I decided to let it run its course. Then last Saturday he woke-up and coughed himself into a fit where he eventually threw-up. He also began complaining that his right ear hurt--he would point to it and say hurt. So we decided to keep him home from church on the first Sunday of the year. I was helping to get Steve and the girls ready for church when Lila came downstairs upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said that it hurt at the end after she went pee. She had been off the the preventative antibiotics for about 3 weeks and she had a rough night sleeping which is another sign of an infection for her so I began to believe her body was fighting another UTI. That afternoon Andrew began running a low grade fever and had green snot. Poor kid. So first thing Monday I called the pediatrician and got the first appointment 9am. The doctor checked him out and said that he probably had a little virus that gave him a sinus infection causing a drainage issue into his ear and eye (he woke-up that morning with green eye goop all over his right eye). So he called in a prescription for him. I asked about Lila--I tried to get her to go with me to the doctor that morning, but she was excited to go back to school so I let her. The doctor said I could just bring her in after school to do a urine sample so we went back right after school.
Lila had a really rough night so we let her sleep in a bit while we got Ellie off to ballroom Tuesday morning. When she came down at 8am her eyes were swollen and red. So I called the doctor again thinking that we may have some kind of eye infection too (Andrew's eye was goopy all Monday--so bad that I gave him a few drops of an eye antibiotic I had from last time). Sure enough the virus lead to a pink-eye infection. He called us in a new bottle of drops and we went home to wash sheets, towels, wash cloths, hand towels, clothes etc. The doctor then called and said Lila's urine sample was growing ecoli and so he called in a prescription for her. And that was really 24 hours.
The week continued . . . Wednesday Steve started not feeling good and came home to take a nap (he never does that), but he had been taking care of sick not sleeping Andrew Sunday and Monday night so I could sleep. I took Tuesday night on realizing that Steve was starting not to feel good. Andrew's cough continued to get worse to the point that he was throwing-up twice a day. One day I went to turn a movie on for my sick little man and he started coughing. He looked at me said, "One second. I go get a bowl." And he ran to his room and got his bowl just in case he threw-up. Poor kid.
I started to get congested Thursday and was really tired and cranky--pregnancy not sleeping, sick kids not sleeping, dry cough not sleeping I was all kinds of tired and cranky and afraid I might actually just cough the baby right out--my stomach muscles hurt so bad. Friday the girls had their first night ski lesson (we gave them 4 weeks of ski school and skiing with Daddy along with new gloves as a Christmas present). Fortunately, the girls had shown no sign of the cold virus to this point--Lila after 24 hours on the eye drops was clear and went back to school and was sleeping better after the antibiotic for the UTI. So I was getting them all ready to go when Andrew woke up from his nap with a spotty red rash . . . ugh another call to the doctor (he didn't have any appointments available). The doctor thinks it is an allergic reaction to amoxicillin so he called in a new prescription.
The skiers returned having had a wonderful time. It was really busy so Steve switched them off of Friday nights since they are going off track here soon (we have to take advantage of the year-round schedule while we can). However, Steve's throat began to get worse. The way he explained it I was afraid his throat might close up and he wouldn't be able to breath. So Saturday morning he went to urgent care to be told it's just a virus and it will take a week to feel better. He was miserable Saturday couldn't talk, swallow, even after taking some advil. Lila and Ellie began complaining of sore throats and then Lila threw-up. I asked her if her tummy hurt she said no and we had no other incident of that.
So this weekend . . . we're on the mend, taking it easy. The girls say their throats don't hurt that bad any more. Steve thinks he may have irritated his out in the cold skiing and talking loud to the girls which caused extra inflammation. He still doesn't have a voice but he feels like the swelling is going down. We worked on baby books, watched a movie together, doing puzzles and hoping this virus will leave us.
Update 1/11: Well I don't think Andrew was/is allergic to amoxicillin since Lila broke out in a rash yesterday afternoon. Also Ellie started showing signs of pink-eye last night so I began her on the antibiotic drops. They are home from school today--hopefully we'll be good to go back tomorrow. :)
In preparation for our first family home evening of the year, which is always our theme and goal setting activity, I reviewed past years' goals and came to realize that our theme for last year could still use a little work so we decided as a family to continue with that goal. The girls could still work on not fighting and learning to communicate their wants/needs. We didn't do so well with our date nights this last year and we decided to try a modified version this year of late night's with Mom & Dad where one of them can stay up past bedtime on Friday and play a game or have a special treat. We want to remember to serve someone daily and report about it. We also talked to Andrew about no hitting and how it would always be an automatic time-out (hopefully he'll figure it out soon). Steve gave the kids wonderful father's blessings to start the new year. Andrew was so cute and as soon as Steve said his name to start the blessing he looked up at Steve and said, "what?" like he was calling on him or something. It was a wonderful Sunday activity.
I want to make some special posters to go in the kids rooms and our living area to remind us of our goal--Love One Another.
Since we have early church we had a little extra time and we played a Book of Mormon challenge game with the girls. It was fun to sit around and play and talk about the Book of Mormon. After Andrew went to bed Steve let the girls each take a turn playing a game on his phone--nothing makes me more happy than to see my family interact and enjoy each others' company and that is what we did today.
Poor Andrew has had a cough for over a week, but it hasn't been affecting his sleep and it isn't croupy so I've just been letting it run it's course, but on Saturday he complained that his ear hurt and then today he started running a fever so we've been catering to a sick little boy who coughed himself awake a couple hours after going to bed. We let him come sit on the couch with us while we watched a show. After a couple of minutes he hopped off the couch went up to his room and got his new nesting dolls then came and snuggled back up and took apart and put back together the dolls at least a couple dozen times. He sure does love that new toy he got in his stocking. Now to feeling better.
